Many Gooners will go with D but surely the manager himself is looking at the question the other way around. If we can win this match we go back to within three points of the league lead–which, with a win at West Ham today, could be held by Tottenham after Leicester City could only draw yesterday–leaving us in with a chance to catch Spurs early on Saturday.

So… Maybe… All is not lost… Yet…

Not the most inspiring words, but still food for (positive) thought… Perhaps?…

As much as Winston Churchill or Henry the Fifth might have spoken the more inspiring words, I’ll go with this guy:

Elvis joining the Air Force might have been–like the words of those English leaders–a call to arms, or, as it was for the King of Rock and Roll, the end of an era, with little beyond a string of cheaply produced movies and Vegas shows to come before a bloated descent towards an early demise. Papers are reporting, after all, that Arsene Wenger already has a new job lined up: commentating at the European Championships this Summer in his birth country. Cue additional outrage among those Gooners who want him Gone (GWWHoGS?…) over his lack of focus, greed, egomania, etc., etc., etc.

All of that being said, the match tonight is actually more than just a referendum on Arsenal’s manager and (believe it or not) there’s a game to be played.

Swansea City make their second trip to North London in eighty hours. They took a lead on Sunday (while we were shipping one at Old Trafford) and held it until the 70th minute but then gave up a second one to come away empty at White Hart Lane. If they were smart, perhaps they stayed in the Northern part of the capital and prepared for this one where they will hope to improve on that result.

So much has changed since we last played this fixture–and lost it–ten months ago.

Gary Monk, despite having led Swansea to their best league finish last season, was sacked after a series of disappointing results in this wide open Premier League campaign. After a bit of interim-ing, the club settled on Italian Francesco Guidolin. Unfortunately, he has not been able to stop Swansea’s slide toward the relegation zone. Currently they sit in 16th place, on 27 points, just three points clear of trouble.

If blaming the manager isn’t always the answer, then what is? Maybe it’s the players. Guidolin has gone away from using Bafetimbi Gomis, the guy who scored the late winner against us, as his main man up front, and, instead, chosen his fellow Italian, Alberto Paloschi, bought from Chievo in the January window. Paloschi scored against Spurs (and had additional chances in that very open match) but we also should beware Gyllfi Sigurdsson, Andrew Ayew (who looked so promising after his summer arrival from Marseille) and Ki Sung-yueng who can also take chances if they are presented.

Swansea will likely be looking–as they did in that match last May–to defend first. We all know the man in goal, Lukas Fabianski as a great shot stopper but, perhaps, not as commanding in the box as some of the Arsenal goalies we chose to keep. Ashley Williams, the Swansea (and Welsh National team) captain is small but strong and organizes his rearguard effectively. That group, including Neil Taylor, Kyle Naughton, Federico Fernandez and/or Angel Rangel, has done it before. Ahead of them are solid if not physically imposing players like Leon Britton, Jack Cork and Wayne Routledge. If all else fails, Guidolin might throw on (currently out of favor) Jefferson Montero (and Gomis) who tortured our right flank in a come from behind win at the Liberty Stadium in Autumn 2014. I’m sad to tell Gooners who believe we should always beat these “lesser” teams, but our recent record against them isn’t strong. Yes, we won 3-nil in the reverse fixture earlier this season, but the last time we actually beat Swansea (in the league) in our stadium was in September of 2011 when an Andrey Arshavin strike was the difference.

That very fact should indicate that this might not be so easy. Add in the insipid performance up at Old Trafford on Sunday and it’s truly a worry. Of course, if the object is to confirm a narrative about just how poor this Arsenal team–and the leadership of Arsene Wenger–might be, then chops should be licked–not to mention torches dipped in fuel and pitchforks sharpened. Whether or not Wenger’s effigy will be burnt in the pre-match protests I cannot say. If the team does not win the full points I shudder to think of the sticks (figuratively, at the very least) with which he’ll be beaten.

Of course, It won’t be the first time and how much worse can it (actually) get than what he’s already taken? Even if the territory is familiar, Wenger must somehow do it again and elicit a response from his charges. How?

At Old Trafford, starts for Theo Walcott and Gabriel Paulista didn’t pan out. Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey looked notably out of sorts and bereft of ideas when they looked up to strike final balls and Mesut Ozil, although he provided an assist (for Danny Welbeck, on another set piece, much as he did with the final kick vs Leicester City in the previous league match) and a goal himself, cut a very frustrated figure. My hunch is that Olivier Giroud returns to the line-up and that Joel Campbell also gets a start, probably for Welbeck, who has played a lot of minutes since returning from his long layoff. A bigger question is who goes in the middle of the park, particularly in the deeper midfield positions and at center back. As much as Gooners were cursing the usual villains, Per Mertesacker and Mathieu Flamini, after they combined to give away a penalty in our Champions League match vs Barcelona (just a week ago) they will have been far from convinced by the options Wenger used to replace them at Manchester United. My guess is that Mertesacker starts and that Flamini at least takes up a bench place.

Subs: Ospina, Chambers, Gibbs, Elneny, Flamini, Walcott, Welbeck

Of course, as always, what do I know?

Many will argue that it doesn’t matter who Wenger puts out or even whether or not the game goes our way. He didn’t do enough in the transfer window(s) and this team, like all his other teams, is doomed. Others, perhaps with a more hopeful bent, argue that we need to shake things up more dramatically and have players starting in different positions or bring in some guys I haven’t mentioned.

Where do you stand and who (or what) would you like to see?

Given our spot in the table and the big showdown with cocks on balls from up there in Middlesex, Wenger will have to do something which gets us the win. Or else…

Love the Swansea background stuff, Seventeenho, and thanks for a typically sharp preview. That includes the starting eleven. I expect Wenger to have done his talking with the team and to go back to our plan A, which is reflected in the line-up. And I expect it roughly to be the same in the PL for the remainder of the campaign. It is time for structure and belief and we need to play to the nature and strength of this team. We need the crowd to sense that all is not over yet and full support could get us all the way to the trophy. There was a season in the last ten years in which we beat Man United home and away but they still won the title. So fuck Sunday’s game and let’s crack the Jacks. COYRRGs! 🙂

Cheers, TA… Hopefully you didn’t think I oversold the importance of the match…. 😀 😦

You probably saw Gerry’s comment at the bottom of the last thread… I feel bad stepping into that (longer-term issues) sort of discussion, but we play here pretty soon… I doubt he likes my editorial work, but (IMO) the content is worthy of discussion as a post of its own…

On that same note, I meant to respond to PE’s response to my comment… Indeed, Rambo on the right, I thought, worked well… Unfortunately, the (new and not too surprising…) injury news re: Jack and Santi probably means Ramsey has to play in central MF. To my mind, he just has to play better… 😀 We could use him getting in on the goals (and assists) same as Alexis…

Anyhow, sun’s shining here so time for a quick bit of exercise before the match…

Well written 17ht I think you have selected the team most people aere expecting. I I can’t help wondering if the introduction of a youngster or two might stir things up a little (ala Rashford?). A dangerous strategy but it has proved successful in the past.

MY spurs season ticket holder friend said that Swansea were pretty poor at the Lane the other day and Spurs were firing in shots from all over. Let hope we do similar.

Great post, HT. Your line up looks very much like Wenger’s who bends backwards not to show misfiring player that his faith in them is up. On the other hand there is the severe pressure of getting the team back to consistent winning ways. Swansea at the Emirate affords a better space for a little tweaking.

The match is fairly open but Swansea look happy to let us have the ball…

25th: Campbell truly doesn’t want to use his right foot (for crossing) his pull back finds Ozil but his shot is blocked. Bellerin’s belter is grabbed by Fabianski on the second try. Hit hard but right at the keeper…

Funnily enough, with all our competitors losing, it does not hurt us as much as it could have. Things have not changed that much from the weekend. But of course, today’s game was one we needed to win for confidence alone and I can’t quite believe we lost again. Our inability to stand up and be counted, defend properly and take our chances is staggering. The game at WHL can still make us but also most definitely break us completely. We know more, much more in 70 hours from now.

Last season we lost after missing number of sitters. Now we lost because of three crossbars, a terrible referee’s decision and Čech’s blunder at their free-kick.

As I’ve said before, it looks like a 2010-11 all over again – a knockout in Champions League against Barca (check), all results in the league going our way except ours (check), our star playmaker will leave us next summer because he won’t want to waste more time on mediocre players like Walcott, Giroud et al (check?).

Alexis created a goal and hit the frame twice. Campbell scored and defended the wing. Both, however, didn’t have the best night in terms of passing. Campbell’s style of play is that he runs a lot, always makes a full-strength sprint and that probably makes him more prone to fatigue than the others.

Anyway, I hope Simeone will persuade Godin and Griezmann to join him at Arsenal next summer. Mertesacker’s reaction at Routledge’s goal was surreal and he didn’t covered himself with glory for their second either.

TA, Čech is out for NLD. He suffered a muscle problem while trying to help our attack at the last corner. You can’t make things like that up.

The road is long and bumpy with an old driver with a poor eyesight behind the wheel. If we qualify for Champions League, our players may celebrate like they have won the league. I can only imagine the WTF-look on Čech’s, Alexis’ and Özil’s face afterwards. The truth is, we have a team consisted of mental midgets. I had been crediting most of them with intelligence (Per, Ollie…) but I have my doubts about that part now. Most of them would end up fourth in a game of chess.

Giroud hasn’t scored since his well-taken goal against Liverpool. Wenger’s reaction tonight? He leaves Giroud on the pitch and sends Welbeck for Campbell. The old man has completely lost the plot but if he hadn’t been sacked after the defeat to Swansea in 2012, he won’t certainly be sacked after the defeat tonight.

Admir, Campbell had 86.8% pass success rate, second only to Ramsey amongst the front 6 players (whoscored). Yes his tracking pace can be quite exhaustive but at the time of the substitution he looked like he had at least 15 min gas left in him.

Unfortunately Welbk who replaced him had a poor game today. And then Walcott replaced Sanchez. With those two changes our forward thrust got blunted.

It is shit on a stick, Admir, but I still think we will win the league. It will be an ugly title win, maybe the ugliest one ever, but our name is somehow on that cup. Had Citeh won tonight, I would not have said that.

Kudos for your optimism. 🙂 I like it and I can’t say that I don’t envy you on that.

1.The refs are totally against us. I have never seen an Arsenal team being cheated by the refs on a regular basis like the current one. And I have seen a lot of robberies since 2004.

2.We can’t buy a goal because someone tried to be a smart ass by not spending big on a world-class striker. Now we are stuck with mediocre strikers who could have formed one top striker if all their qualities had been melted into one.

3.We can’t defend. We have four central defenders and not a single combination has worked properly. We need a world-class CB but with the current manager in charge, that won’t happen.

4.We don’t have a top complete midfielder. Yes, yes, Rambo this, Rambo that, Cazorla this, Cazorla that…but all our lines are like our attack: “Oh, I wish if Per had Kos’ pace! If Kos only had Per’s organizing skills! If Rambo had the passing ability of Cazorla! If Caz had the engine of Rambo! If I only had Flamini’s money!”

5.We have a manager who can’t convince his players to perform better. He is basically doing a Mourinho except Mourinho at least won the league last season (and my money is on Mourinho winning the league with United before Wenger does it with Arsenal).

A hard night for positives. Beyond the big one that the Spuds lost too. For all the effort, the bad luck and the possession and shot stats, the plain fact is that we bottled this game, and a big opportunity went begging with it. It could have been far worse of course, with different results last night and today, but the bounce back we haver been waiting for has still not arrived. We cant wait now beyond this weekend, and we will have to achieve a step change improvement without Cech or Kos. TA is right in that we can still win ugly – let’s face it, the alternatives/competition now are Leicester or Spuds. Can we not catch them over 10 games? That would be no miracle even now.

Time’s running out, but if we can get our bounce back game next time out, knocking the spuds back in the process, then we can still do it. But there is precious little room for any further such games. As ever, this time is not a good one for the nerves. But we are still in the mix, where in many other seasons we would be effectively right out of it by this time of year. Something to cling onto whilst watching the footage of all our missed chances.

Nevertheless the other teams all losing means that the premiership race is still very much alive. In fact, if we win against Sp*rs this weekend as I fully expect us to do, I would say we would be favourites. I’m not too worried about losing to Swansea because somehow we always do.

Six points is nothing over a ten-match sprint. May the best team (us) win!

I dunno about that. I think the Spuds are looking exhausted after a long year of hard-out running and pressing. They were lucky to only lose 1-0 against West Ham. Equally, we were unlucky to lose against Swansea, with that missed foul on Ozil, their offside second goal, and their crossbar taking a real hammering tonight.

To be honest, our weakest link is probably our gutless home support, who were already whining and moaning at half-time with everything still to play for. They’re dragging the team down instead of lifting them up. To win this race everyone has to do their part.

Wenger will be without Laurent Koscielny (calf) and Petr Cech (groin) for Saturday’s derby at Tottenham Hotspur. Koscielny did not play here while Cech appeared to pull up after going forward for a last-minute corner. “Cech had a little groin problem before the game and I think he struggled a bit,” Wenger said. “I don’t know how bad it is. He will not play on Saturday. Neither will Koscielny.”

Nah I watched it all on TV and the negativity came across loud and clear – also a heck of a lot of empty seats, in prime positions as well. All of these empty seats, abuse of players, moaning and booing do nothing to lift the players and we’re really missing that essential 12th player that the home crowd should be.

Also, a lot of the players, like most kids today, have not grown up in a tough environment and I feel that their mental state is susceptible to the atmosphere of hostility and negativity that surrounds them. It’s generational and you can’t really blame the players for it.

We are 6pts below the table topper, and 6pts above the 6th placed team. Wedged in the middle it is time to begin to mind our rear also. That’s being realistic. Too bad if you have gotten addicted to the ‘GREAT DREAM’.

9pts from the last 8 games translates to 42.75pts for a season. Form-wise that’s swimming in deep relegation waters. We must wake up to our true current form, so we can do something about it.

Our true problem is the goals not coming. I don’t need Walcott even on the bench. Am no more part of the great self deception of the ‘famed’ hold up play. What about the unfamed clog in the wheel. IT IS TIME FOR CHANGE STARTING WITH ALEXIS AS STRIKER, CAMPBELL,MATCH AFTER MATCH, AS RIGHT WING.

That would give us a fighting chance to the trophy. Otherwise my worry will be our rear which has been creeping up on us in our stupor of day dreaming.

Can Wenger escape the spell of his pejudices which obviously favors Giroud and Walcott? Our form is broken. It’s got to be fixed. If he can see it this way, that spell would be broken too.

The team owe the fans to get themselves together and put in a full performance on Saturday. I feel like not putting up any posts till then, except a preview if Seventeenho is still up to it. Time for reflection and delivery.

TA, you are so on top of your emotions, you are there to argue with me. Ditto HT. I try to put a lid on mine, but there is a little crack through which it hisses out. Hssssssssssssssssss…….we need some folks benched!

@TA, I don’t know how much Arsene cares about two completely different reasons. 1) Arsene’s father was a member of Vichy’s army (which means he fought alongside Germans, even if Arsene himself said his old man hadn’t served whole-heartedly). 2) Apart from occasional glimpse of genious, Churchill was a racist while Arsene has always been on the right side of that battle.

Thanks HT for your comment on the previous post. I had to chuckle though, as I sent TA a longer version AS A POST … lol!
That was just a hastily edited version as a comment. Mind, I tried to keep to the main point with my editing, which probably improve it, ha ha..

I did not see the game either, only the updates I had from the live match at Anfield.

It would appear confidence is at an all time low. It is probably good we have the NLD next, as these unique games have an atmosphere which can nullify previous form?
I hope so, as I shall be watching it live.
Cheers,
Gerry

Spot on with your last comment Gerry. There ought to be a cracking atmosphere at White Hart Lane this weekend.

Our away supporters are going to raise merry hell to lift our players, and boy will they respond! Meanwhile the Spurs team are starting to feel very real pressure of dealing with wildly delusional fans and their crazily inflated expectations.of dodging the inevitable St. Totteringham’s Day.

Nobody commented upon it, but check out that link I put in the post (by afc4life…) above if you want to see the plastic-y part of the problem… Jack Cork said the home support (or lack thereof…) is what the Swansea guys spoke about at half-time…

In many respects, being a football supporter is ALL about the suffering… That’s why I say, if you can’t take it, just find a “favorite” (American spelling…) team that you “like,” and enjoy them until they become insufferable or a better one comes along…

Plenty of folks treat their marriage(s) more or less that way… 😀 😦 Divorce can be the path to happiness, but sometimes the problems stay even when she (or he) is gone…

Enough philosophizing… (philosophising?…)

Anyhow, I just wanted to alert you, TA, that a match preview is on its way… Can we count on you to deliver a match report?…